Sunday, 31 October 2010

For All The Saints. October 31st 2010.

I think
we’re clear that today is a very special day in the Pagan calendar.

And we can’t
have missed, if we’ve been out in public in the last few weeks, that it’s also
a hugely important event in the retail year.
It might just be me, but I genuinely do
think that the huge commercialisation of Halloween is a very recent thing. And if I’m old enough to say that, I’m also old enough to start the
next sentence with “in my day . . . “

In my day, I
only remember occasional apple-bobbing and maybe a toffee apple. I remember being a bit surprised, even ten
years ago, on a trip to the states, at how much you could buy to mark
Halloween.

The Guardian
recently said that more money is spent on merchandise for Halloween than for
any other non-religious festival. That’s
one of those facts that, at first, made me say “gosh”, and then made me go “but
hang on . . .”. Because, of course,
Halloween, or Samhain is a religious festival
to very many people.

But a lot of
religious people reject it entirely. A
friend of mine, an evangelical Anglican minister, a very lovely and calm man,
became quite vitriolic on the subject, and told me he hated Halloween. Because Halloween,
to many mainstream Christians, is evil.
Not just non-Christian, but actually an embodiment of evil. The argument seems to run something like
this: if Halloween is Satan’s Christmas,
or a celebration of Satan, or Satan’s Birthday, then celebrating it is,
obviously, wrong and harmful.

Well
yes. If.

But that’s
an argument which, to me, is up there with “if we had some eggs we could have
ham and eggs, if only we had any ham.”

Because
except for in a very few, small, instances, nobody, so far as I can tell,
actually thinks that’s what Halloween is.
There may be an argument that Satanists celebrate that day in that way,
but frankly, and maybe I’m being a little rude here: firstly I can’t take Satanism that seriously;
secondly, it seems to be a ’faith’ followed mainly by teenagers wanting to be
‘radical’ and annoy their parents; and thirdly, frankly, there are so few of
them that they don’t pose much danger.

And that’s apart from the fact that I don’t, in any
case, believe in Satan.

But what
happens, I think, is that a lot of mainstream believers – either wilfully or
subconsciously – confuse Satanism in their minds with Paganism and other
Earth-Spirit faiths. That’s not only inaccurate,
it’s also very offensive to Pagans.

And I’m sure
we haven’t missed out on the fact that today also marks a major festival in the
Christian calendar. Today is the eve of
All Saints Day – or All Hallows Day. All
Saints Day was, traditionally, a sort of mopping-up day for all those saints
who didn’t have a special festival of their own. It was much needed: there were far more than 365 saints, so
something had to be done to stop the others feeling left out, I suppose.

The day,
then, was for the celebration of Christian Saints: those rare and holy people beatified by the
church and given a special status. Those
considered nearer to God. Those who
were, literally, holier than us.

Living in
Norwich, of course, we have no shortage of Saints’ names to revel in. Personally, I live opposite the magnificently
named St Etheldreda’s, which is one of my favourite saints’ names. I also pass, on my way to chapel, St Peter
Parmentergate, St Simon and St Jude (I always liked churches with a double
dedication!), and seven others, either with less grand names, or ones I don’t
know.

And All
Saints, of course, is also known as All Hallows: the celebration of all those who are hallowed
– all those who are holy.

Now, that’s
a word we often shy away from in Unitarianism.
It’s nearly up there with “God” in making us get a bit
uncomfortable. However, as you probably
know, I’m on the religious end of our glorious Unitarian spectrum, so work with
me here, and if you’re not comfortable with the word ‘Holy’, translate it in
your head to something you can engage with a bit more easily.

And my
theory is that we are all, every one of us, holy. Every single living being – every living
being who ever is or ever was – is especially holy, especially blessed,
especially magnificent.

Every single
one of us. You, me, your every ancestor,
everyone you’ve met who’s had an effect on you, everyone you’ve never met who’s had an effect on
you. Everyone, in fact, ever. Whether you are conscious of their existence
or not.

All
holy. All special. All hallowed.

As well as
giving us the chance to celebrate our own sanctity, tomorrow is, in many
traditions – Christian as well as Earth Spirit – held apart for celebrating the
lives of our ancestors.

In many
cultures, most famously Mexico, it is held as El Dia de los Muertos – the day
of the dead. It’s a day for remembering
and honouring your ancestors. People
visit the graves of relatives and loved ones, often taking gifts with
them: flowers, or the dead person’s
favourite foods, alcohol, or, for children, toys. One of the things I love about this
tradition, is that the offerings are not then left on the grave. You take your late relatives favourite food
and drinks to their grave, and you gather, and you party, and you eat their
favourite food for them.

This is not,
you’ll have noticed, a Northern European way of dealing with death. We come from a culture where we sanitise
death and the rites surrounding it – I’m probably not the only person who is
actually slightly disturbed when the earth with which a grave is to be filled
is covered in Astroturf to shield us from the reality of what we are
doing.

What is
perhaps most remarkable about the marking of the Dia de los Muertos is its
celebratory nature. It’s not a day for mourning
your dead, although grief is always a part of it: it is a day for celebrating
their lives, their influence on you, the joy they brought to you, and perhaps,
the light that shone through them. It’s
a party, celebrating those who have gone before. It’s their day.

I think we
have something to learn from this attitude.

Today then,
is an important day. Even for those of
us who are grinchy about trick or treating, and who curl up in embarrassment at
the very thought of fancy dress, there are reasons to celebrate today.

The earth,
and the wheel of the year, are turning very noticeably now. Especially with today coinciding with the
clocks going back we can’t deny any longer that despite some stunning weather
recently, it’s pretty much now winter.
Celebrate that.